This blog is about post tubal ligation syndrome, its side effects, and how tubal reversal helped to relieve my symptoms of PTLS. It is also about my life after tubal reversal, and how I feel about the second chance I've been given......

Pages

Friday, April 1, 2011

Breastfeeding and Tubal Reversal

Ok, so I know you are reading the title and you are thinking, don't you mean breastfeeding and tubal ligation? Nope. Here's my story, it's a little weird, but true. (And pretty amazing to me!)

I gave birth to my daughter in December of 2009. She is my fourth and I had breastfed all of the others with no problem what so ever. If there was a problem, it was that I had more milk then my babies could possibly handle, and I always had to have pads in my bra. My husband's running joke was that I wanted to feed not only our baby, but all of the hungry babies in the world. Sometimes it was uncomfortable, but I liked knowing I could pump out a large bottle on a moments notice. And I loved that I didn't have to buy formula. And then the fourth was born by c-section, and I had the tubal done.

The fourth was a hungry little baby. A natural nurser straight away, she nursed, and nursed, and nursed. I waited for the milk to come in, and when it did, it was shocking. There really wasn't hardly any milk to be had. Here I had this baby attached to my boobs constantly since birth, and there wasn't much milk. It didn't make any sense. The baby was checked to make sure she was sucking properly, the lactation consultant gave me the "new mom" breastfeeding speech, and my ob said that sometimes this happens. Where were my gigantic porn star boobs filled with milk??? What happened??? My baby loved to nurse, but what little bit of milk we could get out of my breasts was not enough to fill her tummy. I supplemented with herbs to increase milk supply and it helped very little. But I continued to nurse, but had to follow each feeding with a bottle. This went on for many months and my husband, ever so patient, continued to buy formula and would make sure our daughter was full with a bottle. The fact that I couldn't even fill my daughters tummy just added to the depression that I felt over all of the other symptoms of the TL. Yet, I didn't link it to the TL at first. I thought maybe it had to do with having the csection, thinking major surgery might put a damper on making milk. I asked God to just help me continue to have that close bonding time with my daughter even though I wasn't fully feeding her. I later found information that a medical study proved that milk supply is reduced if a tubal is done after birth. Just another thing that PTLS took away from me.

Long story short, I became snack food. Never enough for a feed, but enough for comforting, for holding over until we got home to a bottle. She didn't particularly love formula. She didn't gain the same amount of weight that her siblings did. But she loved to nurse. I was her pacifier in the middle of the night. Her comfort when she was sad or tired. By the time she was 10 months old we were down to just occasionally nursing at night before bed. She enjoyed just a few moments before being laid in the crib. But not every night. I assumed that there must have been a few drops of milk to be had or else she would give up nursing entirely.

At this point my tubal reversal was in the works, and my cycle was crazy and couldn't be counted on. My doc likes to do the reversal on days 7-11 of the cycle, so in order to plan he put me on monophasic birth control pills (estrogen). I had told him about the breastfeeding issues when we talked about my PTLS symptoms. He said that if there was any little bit on milk left it would dry up with the BC pills. I do think my daughter noticed because she became disappointed when she did occasionally try to nurse. Even the few drops she got were gone. I figured that was ok since she was about to hit a year, and it wasn't like I was her food source anyway.

Fast forward to the reversal. All went great, had the reversal on a friday, and post op appointment the following day, and I was free to make the three hour drive home with my husband. We got home about 1pm, I curled up in bed, took a pain pill and dozed. I woke up at 6pm, got myself out of bed, and slowly made my way down the hallway to look for my family. When I found them my oldest daughter said, "Oh mom, you spilled something on your shirt". I looked down and my tshirt was soaked in the front. I reached up and touched my shirt, feeling a little drugged from the pain pills, and I realized that my breasts were hard. They were engorged. They were filled with milk in a way that they never had after I had given birth. I stood there shocked, confused, and in awe. I looked to my husband and he said, "guess your hormones are working again." I started to laugh. If having a tubal didn't disturb your hormones, then why did this happen after getting it reversed? At this point, my tubes had been reversed for only 36 hours!

My husband suggested putting my daughter back to the breast to see if she would nurse, and she went right back to it like no time had lapsed. For the first time in her life, she was able to fill her tummy with milk from me. She was now 14 months old. We spent the next month bonding, nursing, and snuggling in a way that we never did when she was tiny. I felt so blessed that I was given a chance to experience something so special. It is now 6 weeks (today!) post op, I feel great, my breasts are still full of milk, and my daughter is still nursing in the morning and at night. I will wean soon enough, but right now I am enjoying this gift I've been given.

I had to put this up for others to read because after searching on the Internet I couldn't find any instance where a mom had milk come in after a TR. Granted, I couldn't even find an instance where a mom was looking for a TR while still breastfeeding. I know my tubes weren't tied long, and I know that my daughter was still nursing occasionally up until a month before my surgery. But having milk come in bigger and better than after birth, amazed and delighted me. Others will say it's biology, but I choose to think of it as my own little miracle brought about by a caring doctor and a tubal reversal.

I had a tubal ligation done in 2006, and I have been in so much pain since then... My side constant hurts all the time, and I feel these tools moving on the inside of my stomach.. Has anyone had the reversal done, and what doctor did you go too???

Ok ladies ive been clip free 2 years now i went in and had an American doctor attempt to remive the 4 remaining clips to wake up to be told he found only 1 i was bit happy with his it will be right jack approach so i went ti dr pretorius at murdoch hospital and pleaded with him to find them and get them out of me and he did just that found 2 in my stomach muscle 2 lumps also removed and the other clip up in my hip bone i can tell u u have all 3 clips her in a jar they are black from corrosion and my health has improved that i can now actually "walk" where that was a painful impossible task before no pain walking up stairs its incredible get them out no matter what infact demant it!!!!

Hello, just wanted to say a big thank you for putting up your story. I had TL two weeks ago and my breast milk had dissipated. I have four, like you, all breast fed successfully for a year, no supply issues. Now this, I am desolate and my daughter is working so hard to get very little milk. I have first consultation next week for my reversal operation. Going to cost £3800 but I don't care. I feel just awful, being premenopausal is horrible. Thank you for sharing your story, gives me hope that if I can just keep her feeding a bit, we might get it back :0(

I had a tubal sterilisation and a termination, don't get me wrong I DONT under any circumstances agree with them, but individuals make there own decisions for personal reasons. Mine were to do with my children had been taken and put up for adoption.December 2011 was the hardest thing I did was to have a termination, it still depresses me to this day. So I took it upon myself to be sterilised. Well il be honest it was my doctor who stated that it would be the best thing to do. That was five years ago.

Since having this operation I have been really ill. I've put weight on, I get bad headaches, miserable, bloated I go to the doctors and they try and say it's in my head.... NO ITS NOT.... It's these filsche clips I have in my stomach. Does anyone have the same symptoms? Has anyone had there's tubes reversed on the NHS? Please help I an at my wits end

Thank you for sharing! I was going to have a tubal ligation after my next child but now the hubs will have to get taken care of instead. I got two babies coming to be BF and need all the milk I can get.

I had this procedure done recently. Before the procedure I was always pumping more milk and had a great freezer stash. Now about 3 weeks after lubal ligation I'm pumping 2-3 oz when before I would pump 5-6oz and she eats 4-5. My freezer stash is almost gone and I'm going to have to supplement with formula. Maybe it's different for everyone.

Hello everyone, I was infected with the herpes virus and I got cured of the herpes virus few months ago after i contacted Dr Ekpiku. I saw a post on the internet after i have seek healing for several years from different doctors in California. I sent the Doctor a request for help, just a few email i followed his instruction and he sent me the medication after i paid him. Now i am negative and i referred him to all my friend who had this same sickness and they have gotten their cure too. You can contact him via his email. Ekpikuspellhomeofgrace@hotmail.com or Ekpikuspellhomeofgrace@gmail.com Phone call: +2348073673757. While i was on his medication i understood that he can also cure HERPES, HIV/AIDS, CANCER, Male/female menopause, Miscarriage, Menstruation problems, PREGNANCY PROBLEM, EPILEPSY, GONORRHEA, LASSA FEVER, OBESITY, KIDNEY FAILURE, HYPERTENSION, FIBROID TUMOR and many more.

An amazing testimony on on how i conceive, also cure from fibroid, i wonder why people still don't believe that roots and herbs are very essential and fruitful in different aspect, especially when you can't conceive and bear children. I am a living witness because I tried all I could to be pregnant but all to no avail, on this faithful day, i decided to check the net for updates on healthy living and i came across testimonies of lot of women who Ahiga has helped with his native herbs to conceive. i decided to put a try because this has been my greatest problem in life so I emailed Ahiga, and he told me what to do which i did, after which he sent me some roots and herbs syrup and gave me step by step guild lines on how and when to have sex with my man. I missed my menstrual flow within a short period of taking it, and the doctor confirmed that I am pregnant. I am very glad to tell the world that I just put to bed a bouncing baby boy last week. Contact Ahiga for your own testimony on: (ahigahealing@yahoo.com).

An amazing testimony on on how i conceive, also cure from fibroid, i wonder why people still don't believe that roots and herbs are very essential and fruitful in different aspect, especially when you can't conceive and bear children. I am a living witness because I tried all I could to be pregnant but all to no avail, on this faithful day, i decided to check the net for updates on healthy living and i came across testimonies of lot of women who Ahiga has helped with his native herbs to conceive. i decided to put a try because this has been my greatest problem in life so I emailed Ahiga, and he told me what to do which i did, after which he sent me some roots and herbs syrup and gave me step by step guild lines on how and when to have sex with my man. I missed my menstrual flow within a short period of taking it, and the doctor confirmed that I am pregnant. I am very glad to tell the world that I just put to bed a bouncing baby boy last week. Contact Ahiga for your own testimony on: (ahigahealing@yahoo.com).

Welcome To My Blog!

I hope to connect with others who have suffered from PTLS and get the word out that tubal ligations are misrepresented as a safe, simple contraceptive method. It is my hope that the collective voices of women's experience of pain and suffering will eventually change the way we see sterilization. All women deserve to give a true informed consent which lists all of the possible complications that can arrive from this procedure. I also want to let women know how great I feel after having a tubal reversal, and how they can go about finding a doctor to do a reversal if they wish to have more children or simply rid themselves of PTLS.

About Me

I am a Mom of 5 beautiful children, ages 15(g), 13(g), 5(b), 2(g) and the baby-est 1m (g)! I am married to the most wonderful man in the world (Big J) and we have been married for 20 years! I love being a wife and mom.